Plant & Soul California

04/25/2026

📣 We are seeking your voice! Our upcoming Design Charrette Community Input Meeting is coming up on May 3rd at the 76 Race St. garden. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to our vibrant and growing community! 🙌

Plant & Soul California is collectively re-imagining our non-profit and 76 Race St. garden to better serve our community. We invite you to join us in this process! Come share your experience, memories, and interests; connect with other community members; enjoy some nourishing plant-based food offerings; and be a part of envisioning a more vibrant and accessible garden and non-profit.

Whether you are a volunteer, Monday Night Social attendee, neighbor, native landscape client or enthusiast, family of our education programs, or other community member, please join us! We look forward to seeing you there.

Full agenda and free sign-up in our link in bio!

03/25/2026

giving his stellar review of our very own oven-fired curry pizza at ! 🍕🔥Come to our Monday Night Social, every Monday 6-9 PM at 76 Race St., San Jose to connect with fellow community members and enjoy a potluck featuring handmade gluten-free pizza with vegan options! Be sure to RSVP on our Meetup page 🌱

03/15/2026

Tiny board retreat to sort seeds, finalize our new vision, and our usual rescued food Sunday offering to our neighbors. All in a day’s community with !

Left to right: Samarth Sandeep, Allegra Watson, David Shapiro, Jessicka “Joosey” Chamberlin, Melissa Blum & Sarah Miller.

11/24/2025

Hey Bay Area Peoples!

Not sure where you want to spend Thanksgiving? Want to learn more about the real history of Thanksgiving?

Plant & Soul is hosting a Thanksgiving community potluck in our garden near downtown San Jose!

More details & information & a spreadsheet to sign up to bring dishes is on our MeetUp! Link in bio.

08/07/2025

Hope to see you at the Urban Growers Network Community Resource Fair this Saturday, August 9th, 10:30-1:30pm! We will be offering cut herbs, an herb bracelet making activity, and herbal tea at our table. Here is a sneak peak of what other organizations will be sharing with the community:

- a worm compost bin demonstration from Garden To Table Silicon Valley,
- seeds from the Forge Garden and San Jose Public Library
- from Plant and Soul California (formerly CNGF)
- cooking recipes and other giveaways from Second Harvest of Silicon Valley,
- rare medicinal plants, plant starter kits, and DIY Herbal Tea kits from We Start Gardens
- shirts from Open Source San Jose
- an educational discussion about building resilience using the framework of doughnut economics from California Doughnut Economics Coalition
- interactive emergency preparedness demo from Certain Together
- zines from San Jose Food Not Bombs!

07/25/2025

Save the Date!

Plant and Soul California (formerly CNGF) is a part of the Urban Grower’s Network (UGN) - a coalition of 8 non-profit organizations focused on environmental education, growing food, and food access collaborating to increase our collective impact in the Santa Clara Valley. As a part of the UGN, we will be participating in their upcoming Resource Fair on Saturday, August 9th!

Please join us at the Rotary PlayGarden anytime from 10:30am - 1pm. In addition to the eight food and environment focused non-profits of the UGN, the Resource Fair will feature a variety of organizations including Amigos de Guadalupe Rapid Response Network, California Donut Economics Coalition, Food Not Bombs San Jose, Open Source San Jose, San Jose Conservation Corps - Charter School, Second Harvest Food Bank, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, and We Start Gardens.

RSVP at Eventbrite using the QR code or link here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-resource-fair-tickets-1478830153799

07/10/2025

As we transition from CNGF to our new name, Plant and Soul California, we seek to not only continue, but improve upon how we explore, create, and share a profound understanding of native plants, and everything they have to teach us about how to be better community members as we take care of one another and our natural world.

We are raising $250,000 in order to support this transition. These funds will go towards:

- A second truck for our crews: Thanks to a $15K matching grant from the Rotary Club of Downtown San Jose, we only need to raise an additional $15K for this effort

- Upgrades to the ELSEE Garden: We’re rebuilding our space to host more vibrant community events, with updates from the kitchen to compost relocation

- Our name transition and rebrand: A new name, new website, and new look

- The return of our educational programs: Families are asking when the garden will come alive with kids again. Help us relaunch by Fall 2025 or Winter 2026

Our timeline depends on how fast we can raise these funds! As of today, we have reached 3% of our goal. Every donation helps us grow this vision. Please join us in planting the future at Plant & Soul California.

By California Native Garden Foundation

07/10/2025

California Native Garden Foundation (CNGF) is becoming Plant and Soul California. Our organization's new name has been registered with the county, a Facebook name change is on the way, and we're thrilled to welcome you to a new era of community!

We are changing our name for three reasons:

1. Our community told us to change it! Folks have had such a hard time remembering our old name. We have had people coming to the garden for years who can't remember our name.

2. The old name was too narrow of a scope and didn't embody all we do. Plant & Soul California give us a name that can fit at the front of everything we offer the community: Plant & Soul Native Gardens, Plant & Soul Kids, Plant & Soul Events, Plant & Soul Elixirs, and the list goes on and on!

3. To give ourselves a fresh start! Raising money for nonprofits is very difficult in this era and we need an evocative name that stands out and makes folks take notice: Plant & Soul California, what is that?

Please stay tuned for further updates as we seek to not only continue, but improve upon how we explore, create, and share a profound understanding of native plants, and everything they have to teach us about how to be better community members as we take care of one another and our natural world.

06/21/2025

Hello Facebook Community! We have a big announcement:

The California Native Garden Foundation is now Plant and Soul California!

Please stay tuned for all of the upcoming changes to our website and beyond. You can still find us at CNGF.org, which repopulates to plantandsoul.org.

We are also making many, many changes to our educational garden at 76 Race St. If you haven't been by in a while, we encourage you to come by and check it out. We even moved our compost bins to a whole new place in the garden for easier compost drop off and created more space in our nursery!

We hope to reopen our nursery very soon!!!

Lastly, we are in the process of raising $250K to rebuildthe organization in all kinds of ways. We're almost to $10K! If you would like to give and possibly become a sustainable donor, the link is in the comments!

More exciting announcements to come!

12/25/2024

Happy Holidays!

We’ve had an exciting season of community input meetings, a lovely cacao ceremony to celebrate solstice, our annual native wreath and arrangement workshops, and quiet moments enjoying our friends - human, plant, and animal- at the garden. We look forward to continuing growth and adventures throughout the new year. Hope you’ll come and join us!